At the end of the year 2012, in the documentation project 'Justiz und NS-Verbrechen', which involves the systematic collection and publication of the post-war trial judgments concerning Nazi crimes by German courts, the final volume has now been published. The project was begun in the 1960s under supervision of Prof. Dr. C.F. Rüter at the Institute of Criminal Law of the University of Amsterdam. The book series now consists of 49 volumes with West-German judgments (Justiz und NS-Verbrechen) as well as of 14 volumes with East-German judgments (DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen). With the completion of the project, a vast and unique collection of sources, consisting of some 50,000 pages, documents in great detail the judicial reaction of the two post-war German states to the most serious crimes of the Nazi state.Even though highly diverse in nature and scope, the cases tried by the German courts collectively cover the entire range of National-Socialist crimes, from single denunciations to the mass murder policies carried out in Germany's "euthanasia" centres and in the Eastern European extermination centres and ghettos. Correspondingly diverse is the category of defendants in these cases, ranging from simple concentration camp guards and other subordinate officials or private individuals up to leading representatives and Schreibtischtäter of the Nazi state.

A detailed overview of the various criminal cases and trials as well as of the contents of the 63 volumes can be found at the website of the project ‘Justiz und NS-Verbrechen’, situated at the internet site of the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam: please click here.

Next to the book series, there is now also an online edition of the collection of court judgments, allowing for a systematic study of the key aspects of the way the two German states handled the criminal legacy of the Nazi state. For more information on this online edition you can visit the website. Here you will also find information on how to obtain the books and/or a license for the online edition of ‘Justiz und NS-Verbrechen’. Please click here.